"There are countless horrible things happening all over the world and horrible people prospering, but we must never allow them to disturb our equanimity or deflect us from our sacred duty to sabotage and annoy them whenever possible." -Auberon Waugh

Monday, December 10, 2012

Monday movie

Continuing with the Peter Gunn theme, I'm substituting Part I from one of the TV episodes for the movie clip this week. The episode is called "The Kill".

Peter Gunn was a relatively short-lived series, only running from September of 1958 through September of 1961, but, in keeping with the era, there were a whole bunch of episodes each season (all of which, I was delighted to discover, are available on high-quality DVDs at Amazon; sounds like a nice Christmas present for myself). Craig Stevens stars in the title role, one of the last of Hollywood's old school private detectives: smart, sophisticated and well-tailored, but tough as nails. The somber and low-key Herschel Bernardi plays the typical police department foil, and the scrumptious Lola Albright is Gunn's love interest. One innovation of the series was the use of original "cool jazz" compositions as background music. Classic TV.

In 1961, I was seven years old in England. But I recall this series, or perhaps it just swam around my subconscious during the film & TV noire soirees and Sunday afternoons with my mother watching the oldies.

Sunday afternoons were always a delight to me. I just watched an old black and white movie. I now realize that the best movies were made in B&W.